Regent Place

Regent Place is a funky two story alley filled with quirky Asian restaurants and cafes.

Hard to stumble across if you don't know about it but easy to get to if you do. It's located just across the street from Town Hall train station with multiple entries around the block.

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Me and Nicole went there one evening after work to celebrate that I had been in the country for a month.

We started out with entrees at Yebisu Izakaya, where you ordered everything on tablets which sent the order straight to the kitchen. A fun idea but not so convenient if you are a picky vegetarian like me who likes to ask about the ingredients in everything.

We both ordered two entrees each. I had tofu topped with miso paste (delicious) and some sushi pieces. Nicole had teriyaki salmon belly and gyoza.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/70/1743489/restaurant/CBD/Yebisu-Izakaya-Sydney

Yebisu Izakaya

Still hungry and not finding any mains that we liked we headed to the floor below to Senyai, a good but fairly standard Thai restaurant. I got the Phat Si Io Tofu and Nicole the Chicken Sate.

http://senyai.com.au/

Senyai

After dinner we took a stroll around at the other places which looked cool so we are definitely going back.

I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese...

...I really think so.

Lots of places to eat.

Manly Beach

Hi

This weeks outing went to Manly Beach in North Sydney. Manly is a bit touristy but is absolutely lovely, you take your walks down long car free streets with plenty of opportunity to stop for a beer and chips, or more fancy food along the way, there are plenty of streets going of the main one where there is less tourist and more laid back places.

We found a lovely little Swedish Cafe called Fika where we stopped for Swedish Coffee and Kanelbullar. On the menu they served Swedish Meatballs, Skagenröra, Knäckebröd and other Swedish goodness. The staff was a friendly mix of Scandinavians so I get a chance to talk my mother tongue if only for a few minutes. Well worth a visit and it takes you of the crowded main streets in Manly.

http://fikaswedishkitchen.com.au/

To get to Manly you take a 30 minutes ferry from Circular Quay, it's about $14 return and it's lovely to go out during the day and return to the city after dark so see the city lit up. Both leaving and returning to the city gives you great views of the Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge and Luna Park. But be prepared to be crowded by all the tourists with their cameras if you want to get some good photos.

The Manly beach is pretty long compare to Bondi and Tamarama, my two local beaches, it's about 3 km long and there is a promenade that goes along the beach. I am sure it's crowded in the summer but at the moment it wasn't to busy. A dozen families with kinds building sand castles and 50 or so surfers. We walked along the promenade from the south to north where the beach connects to a large lagoon. There we found a park where a street artist displayed his soap bubble stunts.

We walked back as the sun set, grabbed a snack at the wharf and headed home. 

Finishing the outing with dinner at Grilld in Bondi Junction made this day pretty much perfect. 

http://www.grilld.com.au/locations/#location/new-south-wales/sydney/bondi-junction 

Thank you for reading. 

Fort Denison

Nicole and the Sydney Harbor Bridge

The Sydney Heads, just before Manly beach.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Heads

Nicole at the play ground.

Lagoon at the end of the beach

Balloon guy doing his art

Sun set at manly. The sun actually sets the other direction. But you get some colorful lights.

Manly looking North

Manly looking south

Opera House by night

Gelato Messina

Here is a quick post about a wonderful ice cream place in Sydney.

Gelato Messina creates gelato creations like I have never seen them before.

Take a look at the crazy ice creams below.

You can find Gelatio Messina here.
http://www.gelatomessina.com/

DARLINGHURST STORE 
Shop 1/241 Victoria St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Opening times Sunday to Thursday: 12pm to 11pm
Friday and Saturday: 12pm to 11.30pm


 Map
 
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Great Ocean Road

Sorry for the delay in posting but we have been away to Victoria for a week and not been able to access a computer for blogging.

This is a first of a series of blog posts on our trip to Victoria. We had a fantastic time all week but I have to say that the Great Ocean Road, which this post is about, was a high point. Amazingly beautiful and full of natural wonders it took my breath away.

Some history
The Great Ocean Road was built between 1919 and 1932 with the aim of building a world class scenic road and I don't think that anybody can say it is less than what they set out to do. But it was also a project to handle the mass unemployment of returning soldiers from World War I. It was built as a memorial of the Australians who lost theirs life during the war and it is considered the worlds longest war memorial.

Stretch
It stretches from Torquay in the East to Warrnambool in the West. An impressive 243 km of amazing scenery and nature.

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1, 2, 3+ Day Trip
You can do it one day from Melbourne and start early, but be prepared for a long drive in the car. For various reasons we decided to do it in 2 days instead so we had more time to explore. There is plenty to see and do along the GOR and this post just shows a few spots that we had time to see. It wouldn't be a problem to spend twice as much time on the drive and still not get bored.

12 Apostles
We headed out of Melbourne and took the inland road via Colac, cutting across from the free-way down to the coast to Port Campbell and then straight to the 12 Apostles to catch them for sunset which was amazing.

They are supposed to be even more amazing at sunrise but it was pretty damn good at sunset too. And since it was off season there were not that many other tourists there.

Loch Ard Gorge
We spent the night back in Port Campbell with dinner in a proper Aussie pub. Next morning with headed out to Loch Ard Gorge which is a famous ship wreck site. That stretch of coast used to be known as Ship-Wreck-Coast and there are as many as 200 know ship wreck sites.

The wreck itself had long been washed away but the Gorge itself was beautiful.

Great Otway National Park
About halfway on GOR is Great Otway National park. We took the road off the GOR to Cape Otway and we saw Koalas. Wild Koalas! Lots of them! We saw at least two dozen koalas but only managed to catch a few of them on camera. Unfortunately I don't have zoom on my camera.  Click on the pictures for a better view.

Apollo Bay Lunch Time
After Cape Otway we made or way to Apollo Bay for lunch. We got some take away chips and sat by the bay and ate them.

Apollo Bay to Torquay
The stretch is not as dramatic as the Ship-Wreck coast but no less fantastic. The road licks the coast which is dotted with tiny beaches every kilometer or so. We had to stop several times to enjoy the view and take pictures as the sun was setting for our second wonderful sunset in as many days.

Great Great Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road lives up to it's name. Lots of Ocean, Road and Greatness. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of our trip and can't wait to go back.

Thank you for reading and feel free to comment,
Jonas and Nicole

Hyde Park Barracks

Unlocking Australia's Past

It rained the whole day yesterday so we decided to have a museum day. One thing that I have been keen to learn more about is Australian history. All we learn about Australia in school in Sweden is that it was a big prison island. A Europe-sized Alcatraz, a wonderful idea worthy of being made into major motion picture, but more myth than reality I always suspected. So we decided to check out Hyde Park Barracks which once was a central node in Sydney's convict handling and today is a museum covering not only it's own history but also that of Sydney's early history.

Large murals cover the walls of one of the exhibition rooms. This one shows the state of affairs in England at the time. Notice the pickpocket at the right hand side of the picture. He has a future in Australia to look forward to. 

Another big mural showing life outside the Barracks. 

Model showing the building of the Barracks in 1818.

Up to 70 convicts slept in the same room on the top floor of the barracks. Boys as young as 9 and men as old as 70 where convicted to a life in the colonies.

Edutainment!
It was a great day and we both enjoyed the museum very much. There was plenty to see and the two hours we had put aside for visiting the museum was a bit on the short side. We had to hurry through the last two rooms before they rang the closing bell and kicked us out. We both had a fab time and I can highly recommend the museum.

Details
* Admission
At $10 it was well priced and a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald was included in the price.
* Opening hours:
Open daily 10am - 5pm
* Location:
Hyde Park Barracks are located at the top of Hyde Park. Closest train stations are "St. James Station" or "Martins Place" depending on what line you are on.
* Web site:
http://www.hht.net.au/museums/hyde_park_barracks_museum
* Map:

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Katoomba - Blue Mountains - Part 2

Our second day of Katoomba we started slow. After a few beers at the RSL and a bottle of wine at the hotelroom we were not the earliest guests out of the hotel. We just managed to catch the hotel breakfast in the Grand Dining room before it closed at 10 am. After checking out and the late breakfast we strolled around town for a while. I picked up a climbing guide for the Blue Mountains and then we strolled into a cafe where I had a coffee while Nicole sipped on hot chocolate.

Hike 2: Echo Point - Scenic World

After coffee we headed out for our hike. Like yesterday we started at Echo Point and headed down the giant stair case, past three sisters, all 894 steps to the bottom.

Map

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It was a pretty easy hike which again took us about 3 hours including stops for photos and admiring amazing views, birds and crazy big trees.

 Currawong up in tree

 View about half way.

XXXL tree.

Nicole posing in front of a huge and very old Turpentine Tree

At the end of our hike was Scenic World which is a collection of Cable Cars, Boardwalks, Miners Village and a Scenic Railway. It was pretty touristy with plenty of school kids. So it was a bit crowded but that didn't stop us for really enjoying the views, which were breath taking.
http://www.scenicworld.com.au/

View from Scenic World

Continued view from Scenic World.

Check out those crazy trees.

Nicole pretending to be a 1900 century coal miner.

Apart from plenty of views Scenic World is also a Miners "museum" of sorts with lots of plaques with information and old mining equipment on display.

If you energy to spare after the hike and don't feel like being crowded at Scenic World then you can climb it yourself using the Furber Steps which you can take to the top. But beware that it is 900 vertical meters that you need to climb.

The Cable Car was closed so we took the Scenic Railway, which is the steepest passenger railway in the world, to the top and headed back into town. We were both pretty tired and happy after a wonderful hike. But also starving since we hadn't eaten since breakfast. There are plenty of options to eat in Katoomba which seems great. I can recommend "Common Grounds Cafe" for good pumpkin soup or a delicious veggie burger.

But the best place we found without question was the Unique Patisserie which except for displaying delicious looking pastry and cakes also served Malaysian/Penang food which was well priced and absolutely delicious.
https://www.facebook.com/UniquePatisserie

Tofu with bean sauce from Unique Patisserie. Yummy. Ate half the salad before I took the picture. Sorry. :P

After food and Chocolate Pudding we picked up our bags from The Carrington and headed to the train station. We sleept most of the way home happy with tired legs and full bellies.

I really enjoyed my first visit to the Blue Mountains and Katoomba and can really see us going back there many more times. I would love to visit some of the other towns next time, like Wentworth Falls or Blackheath.

Thank you for reading!